Another Clemson football linebacker set to enter transfer portal
A second Clemson linebacker is entering the portal.
Junior linebacker Jamal Anderson is leaving the Tigers via the portal, The State confirmed on Tuesday. Anderson appeared in four games for Clemson this year, an intentional move by the team to allow him to redshirt.
The news of Anderson’s transfer was first reported by On3 Sports.
Anderson had five tackles in four games this season and didn’t play after appearing on Sept. 20 vs. Syracuse. Anderson mostly played linebacker and also spent time at the team’s “big nickel” spot as a hybrid linebacker/defensive back.
Anderson (6-3, 225) went from playing double-digit snaps in big early games against LSU and Georgia Tech to not playing a single snap in Clemson’s last eight games.
Clemson coach Dabo Swinney addressed the decision to redshirt Anderson on Oct. 4 after the linebacker didn’t travel with the team for a road game at UNC.
“We hardly played him his freshman year at all,” Swinney said. “We really kind of wasted a year, honestly. And we talked this spring about that with him, that if it worked out we would consider redshirting him.”
“Where we were and where they feel like the linebackers are, we felt like we could try to hold him. And so that’s what we made a decision to do with him.”
Anderson was a backup to starting linebackers Wade Woodaz and Sammy Brown and also fell behind Alabama transfer Jeremiah Alexander and Kobe McCloud as the season went on under the leadership of new defensive coordinator Tom Allen.
Anderson is the second Clemson linebacker to announce plans to enter the transfer portal (Dee Crayton) and fifth overall player to do so this offseason.
A former four-star 2023 recruit from Georgia, Anderson is the son of former NFL running back Jamal Anderson, who was a standout running back with the Atlanta Falcons and played eight years in the pros from 1994 to 2001.
How the NCAA transfer portal works in 2025-26
The NCAA transfer portal window runs for 15 days from Jan. 2-16, 2026. Players cannot formally enter their name into the transfer portal until Jan. 2, although hundreds will declare their intent to enter the portal earlier than that date.
Once they are formally in the portal, player can commit to a school at any point. There is no spring transfer portal window, as the NCAA abolished it last fall.
Clemson football 2025 transfers
- ATH Marquise Henderson (offseason)
- DB Shelton Lewis (mid-season)
- LB Dee Crayton
- RB Keith Adams Jr.
- S Khalil Barnes
- LB Jamal Anderson
This story was originally published December 11, 2025 at 4:15 PM with the headline "Another Clemson football linebacker set to enter transfer portal."
